ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The US State Department on Wednesday designated four Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups as foreign terrorist organizations, marking a continuation of Washington's efforts to hamper Tehran's influence in Iraq and across the Middle East.

The US Department of State in a statement said that it had “designated Iran-aligned militia groups Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”

“As the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, Iran continues to provide support that enables these militias to plan, facilitate, or directly carry out attacks across Iraq. Iran-aligned militia groups have conducted attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad and bases hosting US and Coalition forces, typically using front names or proxy groups to obfuscate their involvement,” it said.

It further emphasized that the department previously designated all four of these groups as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

US Congressman Joe Wilson, in a post on X, expressed his gratitude to US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka for the move, noting that he requested the designation in a "letter earlier this year and in the Free Iraq from Iran Act."

He further urged the authorities to designate the Iraqi Badr Organization to the list of alleged terrorist organizations, calling it the “mother of all Iran-backed terror groups in Iraq.”

The Badr Organization, a Shiite militia founded in 1982 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, returned to Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s fall in 2003 and now wields significant political and military influence as part of the state-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

“This action will empower our prosecutors to dry up funds for these terrorist groups,” Wilson continued, adding, “I told you Trump would fix it!”

Trump has reimposed the “maximum pressure” policy on Iran since commencing his second term in the Oval Office.

Wilson, former chair of the House Middle East subcommittee, and Democratic Representative Jimmy Panetta unveiled the “Free Iraq from Iran” bill in April, which targets Iranian influence in Iraq.

The bill calls for dismantling all Iran-backed militias, including the PMF, and shuttering their influence within Iraq’s government and ministries.

The bill would suspend US security aid if Iraq fails to meet its requirements, opposes a pending Iraqi parliamentary measure to formalize the PMF within state security forces, and directs the US Treasury to block Iraqi government and private-sector imports of Iranian liquefied natural gas.